This is a Christian blog dealing with various issues. “Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.” -Charles Spurgeon. Scripture is my authority for all things regarding to life and godliness. 2 Cor. 10: 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

"Everything about God is great, vast, incomparable. He never forgets, never fails, never falters, never forfeits His word. To every declaration of promise or prophecy the Lord has exactly adhered, every engagement of covenant or threatening He will make good."

A shepherd is no shepherd who does not walk among and with the flock in the manner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He nourishes them through the unified corpus of sound doctrine in the manner that he has been nourished. He protects them from all assaults of encroaching errors, and sinful threats to their fellowship with Christ. He loves them by laying down his life, not vicariously, but sacrificially, committing them to Christ, their Head. He does not place barriers of self-ambition and vanity between he and them. Whatever famines men think there are, the greatest of these is that personality cultism has replaced the humble ministry of the lowly shepherd.

The soldier's loyalty is seen in his obedience to Christ, unwavering proclamation of his King's edicts, and refusal to bask in the glory of the King's subjects. It is also seen in the soldier's desire to please the One who has enlisted him, and to walk among those he protects, willing to sacrifice his life, although not vicariously but lovingly, for all who belong to the King.

The goal of biblical discipleship is to see Christ formed in others, not yourself formed in others. Therefore the only means to accomplish this is by teaching believers all that Christ commanded in the Scriptures (Matt. 28:20). Discipleship, then, is not to rally individuals around one's personality, hobbies, or temporal interests; rather for them to know the Scriptures and apply what they have learned in their lives and the lives of others. It is to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and patience, and to connect believers to their biblical heritage as it relates to the unified corpus of sound doctrine.

The godly man is so not because he has been propped up by a consensus of men, money, and resources. The godly man is so because he is commended by God, often in spite of men, affirmed by Him, and holds to the mystery of godliness with a clear conscience.

There are a long list of people, biblically speaking, who will trumpet "doing the right things." They do so while appealing to their pragmatic lusts and force you to bankroll their folly. Even those who make their living telling you that you must do what is right in the eyes of God. And then there are the few who, no matter the personal cost, or the consequence of man's shifting, futile opinions, live by their biblical convictions, and actually will do what is right instead of simply talking about what is right.

The following excerpts are in response to“The Nov. 17-19 conference, “An International Interreligious Colloquium on The Complementarity of Man and Woman,” will feature about 30 speakers from 23 countries and 14 religions.”

The gospel is not something to be discussed along with social causes. Noticeably our ages’ most celebrated compromisers generally use the term ‘gospel’ without identifying it as the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not some conference admission tool. It is not a ‘discussion’ between men with the hope of settling on some middle ground. It is not some intellectual debate. In fact, the Scriptures are not up for debate.

The visible church has defaulted on sounding the alarm and has stoned the discerning in the court of public opinion. In recent years, men such as John Piper and Mark Driscoll have affirmed the ecumenist Rick Warren. Their affirmations have legitimized men such as Warren. The three men must be avoided and the alarm must be sounded with more vigor, even if men would criticize because the alarm is too loud and frequent. Joining the Vatican Council is not the unity of Christ. It is the unity of the kingdom of darkness. It is not the unity of the faith, but the unity of the faithless. The faith does not need men’s help for exposure. In fact, a mark of the true disciple of Christ as not that the world unequivocally embraces the man, but that they unequivocally despise him (Matt. 10:22)....

This brings the final issue. We must stop our own love affair with coddling false teachers and apostates. We must stop criticizing those who are warning us of these things. We must stop pretending that we care so much for the local church that those who warn us about the universal church are labeled as bitter Christians. We must not accuse them of fault-finding, when Satan laughably sets the faults on the table, God exposes them for us, and we continue to excuse these faults, because the trojan-horse carriers are well-published, well-liked, and well-commended. The standard cannot be our own minds and feelings about men. This is folly. We must think God’s thoughts after Him concerning these things, namely as Paul the apostle has said in 1 Corinthians 1 that the gospel of Jesus Christ is foolishness to the wise. It confounds them. It brings up from them hatred of the blessed Son. God has not chosen the wisest, most esteemed, and beloved as vessels for His truth. It is the despised, the lowly and the maligned who bear true witness and testimony of His holy Gospel. In other words, we must repent of our desire to raise up celebrities, emulating them, and raising them up as the standard; finding them beneficial, even though they have demonstrated persistent disloyalty to Christ.

Have we become dull of hearing and seeing like those in the time of Isaiah and the Prophets? Have we refashioned Christ so much that when His modern disciples cry out to us, we scorn them and cast them from our presence? We must repent of mocking those whom God has given the sorrowful burden of seeing these things and sounding an alarm from rooftops. We must stop deriding them as those who correct us too much or label them as discernment divas. We must see their faithful, biblical words as pure gold and batteries for our compass. Satan loves nothing more than to raise up his ecumenists, but more than that, he loves to use the mouths of compromising ‘evangelicals’ to commend his servants. We must not only test these things against the infallible Holy Scriptures, but also test ourselves in the faith to see if we are truly in Him. We must ask ourselves do we have a fraternal spirit of pseudo-gospel progress? Has this caused us to despise the true Christians who plead with us to return to our first love: Christ? Do we believe that the family is more important than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when the biblical gospel and true discipleship carries us away from our families into the bosom of Christ (Matt. 10:37)?
~Excerpts from "The Ecumenical Spirit And the Celebrity Handmaiden"

Monday, July 10, 2017

Of Mohler's self defined doctrinal triage, he lists the authority of Scripture as in the first tier. The problem is that this is in contradiction to his entire system since the doctrinal triage (DT) is an ATTACK on Scripture.

The library at The Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley, California allows access to more than 200,000 volumes. Among this vast array of works very few have been concentrated on an emerging topic in evangelicalism called the doctrinal triage (also known as theological triage – hereafter usually designated by “DT”), because, DT is a quite novel concept in evangelicalism.1 Accordingly, the inception of DT has been attributed to an article written on May 20, 2004 by Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In his article, Mohler defined the theological triage as a three-level system of doctrinal importance when he wrote:

“Today’s Christian faces the daunting task of strategizing which Christian doctrines and theological issues are to be given highest priority in terms of our contemporary context. . . theological seriousness and maturity demand that we consider doctrinal issues in terms of their relative importance. First-level theological issues would include those doctrines most central and essential to the Christian faith. Included among these most crucial doctrines would be doctrines such as the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, and the authority of Scripture. . . The set of second-order doctrines is distinguished from the first-order set by the fact that believing Christians may disagree on the second-order issues, though this disagreement will create significant boundaries between believers. When Christians organize themselves into congregations and denominational forms, these boundaries become evident. Second-order issues would include the meaning and mode of baptism. . . Third-order issues are doctrines over which Christians may disagree and remain in close fellowship, even within local congregations. I would put most of the debates over eschatology, for example, in this category.”

In other words, the theological triage is the practice of prioritizing biblical doctrines to their individual degree of importance, labeling them as of primary importance, secondary importance, or tertiary importance. Mohler’s thesis was that doctrines from the Word of God differ in their level of importance, and that these levels of importance dictate the levels at which fellowship is possible with others among the Christian consensus....

Mohler’s isolation of doctrines in terms of their importance were categorized as “first-order” doctrines that are fundamental and essential to the Christian faith; “second-order” doctrines that are essential to church life and order in the local church; and “third-order” doctrines that do not threaten the fellowship of a local church congregation or denomination.8 The transition of doctrines from the pages of Scripture to the application of these doctrines in the life of the church go through this first-stage evaluation. Therefore, the danger of DT is when it becomes a “principle” in interpreting and applying God’s Word. Mohler argued that doctrines and theological issues are to be given highest priority in terms of our contemporary context. What is more, Mohler argued that theological seriousness and maturity demand that we consider doctrinal issues in terms of their relative importance. On the other hand, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics had a completely different take concerning the influence of the contemporary context on the relative importance of doctrine when the authors wrote, “WE DENY that the distinctions between the universal and particular mandates of Scripture can be determined by cultural and situational factors. We further deny that universal mandates may ever be treated as culturally or situationally relative.”

Hermeneutics is the discipline that deals with the principles of biblical interpretation.10 The goal of hermeneutics should be to determine the objective meaning from the Scripture. The only way to accomplish this is through the exegesis of the Scripture by using the literal grammatical-historical hermeneutic.11 The literal grammatical-historical hermeneutic is Scriptures’ self-attested rule for interpreting Scripture....

To summarize the origins of the history of the practice of triage, it began in military medical procedures only as early as the Napoleonic Wars and did not enter into secular emergency medicine or hospital emergency rooms until after World War II in the 1950’s….

Therefore, the purpose of triage in emergency medical pragmatism is sorting and prioritizing patients to treat them based on the allocation of resources. The microallocation and macroallocation is contingent on the resources that are available. Specifically, it is dependent on which geographical area treatment is provided because resources can be scarce. But the Christian has the entire corpus of God’s Word. Therefore, the Christian does not have a shortage of doctrinal resources for the purpose of practicing microallocation and macroallocation. Triage has a place in emergency medical pragmatism. But does DT have a place in the church? Although emergency medical departments rely on tax payer’s money to dispense emergency care – there is no lack of resources with God. God is infinite and He has unlimited resources.What is more, the triage as a concept concerning ethical thought did not invade the overall western culture and implement itself into mainstream secular philosophies of education until the 1970’s....

In his article “A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity,” written on May 20, 2004 Mohler explained how he came up with the idea for theological triage. He explained in his article that he borrowed the concept of triage from a trip to a local hospital emergency room. He invoked the memory this way when he wrote, A trip to the local hospital Emergency Room some years ago alerted me to an intellectual tool that is most helpful in fulfilling our theological responsibility. In recent years, emergency medical personnel have practiced a discipline known as triage–a process that allows trained personnel to make a quick evaluation of relative medical urgency. Given the chaos of an Emergency Room reception area, someone must be armed with the medical expertise to make an immediate determination of medical priority. Which patients should be rushed into surgery? Which patients can wait for a less urgent examination? Medical personnel cannot flinch from asking these questions, and from taking responsibility to give the patients with the most critical needs top priority in terms of treatment. . . Thus, the triage officer in the medical context is the front-line agent for deciding which patients need the most urgent treatment. Without such a process, the scraped knee would receive the same urgency of consideration as a gunshot wound to the chest. The same discipline that brings order to the hectic arena of the Emergency Room can also offer great assistance to Christians defending truth in the present age....

Mohler’s theological triage has gained commendation in the blogosphere and popular
online video teaching programs. For instance, one blog writer identified Mohler’s original article on DT as seminal and praised the work as the solution to determine not
only the relative importance of particular doctrines in the church but also the solution for
triaging the distinctions between what he categorized as bad doctrine vs. heresy.
26 On
October 20, 2016, a popular and influential online teaching program dedicated an entire
hour when a guest speaker and pastor argued that Mohler’s Theological Triage is the
solution for maintaining the unity of the faith across the dividing line.
27
What is more, not only has DT made an impression on blogosphere and popular
online video teaching programs, it has also influenced academic institutions beyond
Mohler’s Alma Mater. For instance, a Master of Divinity thesis was written in 2007 by
David Gundersen which was strongly influenced by Mohler’s original article.
Consequently, Gundersen entitled his thesis “Biblical Principles for Determining the
Relative Importance of Particular Doctrines.”28 Accordingly, Gundersen’s thesis
purposed to develop biblical principles to examine a doctrine in order to distinguish its
approximate scriptural weight.29 Nevertheless, the author confessed that Scripture does
not teach DT as a biblical principle and demonstrated his frustration to create DT as such
when he wrote, “Scripture does not provide a diagram or a list of all primary, secondary,
and tertiary doctrines. . . It is impossible to create a flawless machine that can mass-produce doctrinal importance levels.”30

On the history of triage from which Al Mohler borrows to use as a hermeneutic to interpret and prioritize (and determine who's in and who's out of Christianity) and this is KEY (and you should ask yourself, who is the spiritual equivalent of "trained personnel" and "medical personnel" who rate the priorities of incoming injured people to the ER? Who gets to determine what doctrines are higher or lower of importance? How do they determine that? By what standard? You should be asking these questions and then search the Scriptures to see what God says in His Word.

Gal 1:7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
Gal 1:9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Rom 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;
Rom 3:10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; Rom 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; Rom 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."
Rom 3:13 "THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING," "THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS";
Rom 3:14 "WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS";
Rom 3:15 "THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,
Rom 3:16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,
Rom 3:17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN."
Rom 3:18 "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."
Rom 3:19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;
Rom 3:20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

Rom 3:21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Rom 3:22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Rom 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

Rom 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

Rom 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Rom 3:27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Eph 2:9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Sunday, July 02, 2017

In January, 2017 Christian apologist James White invited Muslim leader Yasir Qadhi to have an inter-faith dialogue meeting at Grace Church in Memphis, TN. White has come under attack for this event for many reasons including: (1) Allowing Qadhi to justify Islam by lying and misleading Christians with demonstrably incorrect claims all unchallenged; (2) Endorsing Qadhi’s dishonest portrait and promotion of “true” Islam as being peaceful even though it is not, and even though Qadhi has recently endorsed, buddied up with and defended terrorists, and even though Qadhi is a member of numerous terrorist and Muslim Brotherhood front groups (as the Holy Land Foundation Trial proves); (3) Having an inter-faith meeting in a church in front of Christians which is unbiblical; (4) Allying with a wicked leader of a false religion like Qadhi is unbiblical (e.g. calling Qadhi his “mentor,” saying he has a “kindred spirit” with Qadhi, wanting to unite with Qadhi and Muslims against secularism, saying he is honored by Qadhi’s presence, and "fellowshiping" with Qadhi and Muslims as the event banner advertised, etc). In this article I will explain the reasons why these criticisms of White are valid.

White’s critics include the following Christians and experts in Islam:

He couldn't be more wrong. Mac, you're killing me. To bake for a sodomy union is akin to helping them celebrate something blasphemous. I can't believe he's relegated this to a mere issue of personal preference/political issue. He's compromising and it's hard to watch.Christian Post reports that during the Q&A at Ligonier's 2017 conference, MacArthur answered this question: is it sinful for a Christian to make a product for a same-sex wedding?

His answer:

"No, it's not sinful for a cake maker to make a cake for a gay wedding anymore than its sinful for a guy who runs a restaurant to serve dinner to somebody who is gay, sits in a booth and eats the food, or goes to the market and buys a loaf of bread and you own the market," he argued. "What the issue is, is not whether that's sinful. It's weather the federal government can demand that people do certain things, which goes against their Christian conscience."

MacArthur argued that this is "more of a political governmental issue."

"I actually think that we need to show love to everyone and particularly, we need to do good to all those that are outside the kingdom, as well as inside the kingdom, as much as possible — a gesture of kindness toward some unregenerate person is in itself not a sin," he added.

However, MacArthur suggested it is plausible for Christians to feel that serving a gay wedding violates their "conscience in some way" and argued that they should have the right to act in accordance with their conscience.

End quote.

It's one thing to feed a person food to eat, but quite another to aid in their abominable celebration. That's straight up approval. MacArthur is not ending his ministry well at all, and while I've benefited from his teaching immensely for 30 years, it's clear that he's become just another compromiser.

The political/governmental catagorizing wasn't an answer to the question. The question was, is it a sin for a Christian to bake a cake for a sodomite union? And just because it's lawful (via civil government) doesn't mean it's right or good. God defines what is good and righteous.

"Doing good" doesn't include promoting their sinful behavior. He's mixing the idea of the Good Samaritan (meeting a TRUE need and doing good) with selling meat for idol worship (which is not a need and is helping them sin against the Holy One of Israel) and it just can't be done biblically. How is it showing kindness and love by aiding and abetting a pagan do continue in his abominations and doing so as a Christian? How?

Rom 3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates
the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not
unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)

Rom 3:6 May it never be! For
otherwise, how will God judge the world?

Rom 3:7 But if through my lie
the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a
sinner?

Rom 3:8 And why not say (as we are
slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), "Let us do evil that
good may come"? Their condemnation is just.1Th 5:22 Abstain from every form of evil.

Isa 31:2 Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster And does not retract His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of the workers of iniquity.

Isa 31:3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch out His hand, And he who helps will stumbleAnd he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.

About Me

My name is Denise. I grew up in the Charismatic movement, but God delivered me out of it, and I thank Him for that. My heart is to show other believers the error of various movements(WOF, NAR, Seeker Friendly, Reformed theology/New Calvinism).I want to help them find truth through Scripture. I love the Word of God and hold it dear to my heart. It is the standard by which I filter everything, including doctrine & politics, including my own thoughts and actions. Ps 138:2
There is One God, and within the One God there are three distinct, co-equal and co-eternal persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit(1Peter 1:2; Matt. 28:19; Matt. 3:16-17; John 14:16-17). Literal 6 day Creation is Truth.Scripture is infallible, inerrant, & God-breathed (2Tim. 3:16, Heb.4:12, Ps. 19 & 119). Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone apart from any works (baptism, prayers, walking an aisle, etc.) so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8-10). God is totally Sovereign in ALL things (Ps 33). I do mean ALL. Man is responsible for his sin. God is responsible for saving the elect through HIS means.